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Lennie James, from left, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Colman Domingo attend the “Fear the Walking Dead” panel on day two of Comic-Con International on Friday, July 20, 2018, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Executive producer Scott Gimple left the bathroom door open during a “Fear The Walking Dead” press conference at Comic-Con 2018 on Friday afternoon, mentioning in passing that Morgan, the character played by Lennie James, who crossed over from the “The Walking Dead” to this spin-off series earlier this year, gets to use a toilet in an upcoming episode.

But it was a brave reporter from Huffington Post who lifted the seat and left it up to ask a question many have wondered but few dared speak aloud, “Do zombies poop?”

The panel of cast and creators, as well as a few dozen reporters, burst into laughter, with James laughing hardest of all. And, to his credit if also our dismay, Gimple didn’t shy away from answering.

“I think there’s a fermentation process that could result in projectiles,” he said, the ballroom erupting once more as some of the cast warned him actress Maggie Grace, who plays Al, one of the newer characters on the series, might not be able to take much more of the zombie potty humor, though she gamely offered her own take on the question.

“That’s why they walk so strangely,” Grace said.

The second of season 4 of “Fear The Walking Dead” resumes on Aug. 12, and the rest of the press conference dealt with questions of what had happened in the opening eight episodes this spring, and how that might unfold in the final eight this summer and fall.

Several characters who had been on the show since its debut were killed off earlier this year, and several new actors were added to the cast. Newcomers James, Grace, Jenna Elfman and Garret Dillahunt were joined at the press conference by returnees Alycia Debnam-Carey, Colman Domingo and Danay Garcia, as well as Gimple and several other producers.

James, when asked whether he felt competitive or hoped to make “Fear The Walking Dead” better than “The Walking Dead” after he shifted to “Fear” in April, laughed.

“When Scott said, ‘Let’s do this thing,’ I said, ‘Yeah, let’s make it better than the other show,’” James said, his British accent a contrast to the soft-spoken American voice in which he speaks on the show. “”Let’s get some people together and go over to Atlanta (where ‘The Walking Dead’ is filmed) and do them in.’”

More laughter, then he offered a more serious take.

“I try to do my best wherever I am,” he said. “If it was just a gimmick, I’m not interested. I’m very protective of Morgan as a character.

“But if we end up kicking the other guys’ ass, that’s a bonus,” James finished.

Gimple also didn’t dismiss the idea that other characters might make a similar transition to James’, jumping from the original show which is set in Virginia on the outskirts of Washington D.C. at present to the spin-off which has moved from Los Angeles to Baja California and now Texas over the course of its four seasons.

“You never know who might pop up in ‘Fear The Walking Dead,’” he said, adding as the reporters in the room literally murmured that he rather liked getting that kind of excited response to the comment.

The second half of season 4 also introduces weather as a character, something neither “Dead” series has ever really incorporated, with a storm that was hinted at being hurricane-like ahead when the series returns.

Gimple also teased the possibility that the universe of “Fear The Walking Dead” and “The Walking Dead” might expand more in the future, referencing the latter show’s executive producer Greg Nicotero’s wish to eventually have a setting that incorporates frozen zombies.

“We’re currently working on somethings that answer that question,” Gimple said. “The frozen walker battle continues.”

Peter Larsen has been the Pop Culture Reporter for the Orange County Register since 2004, finally achieving the neat trick of getting paid to report and write about the stuff he's obsessed about pretty much all his life. He regularly covers the Oscars and the Emmys, goes to Comic-Con and Coachella, reviews pop music, and conducts interviews with authors and actors, musicians and directors, a little of this and a whole lot of that. He grew up, in order, in California, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon. Graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. with degrees in English and Communications. Earned a master's degree at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Earned his first newspaper paycheck at the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, fled the Midwest for Los Angeles Daily News and finally ended up at the Orange County Register. He's taught one or two classes a semester in the journalism and mass communications department at Cal State Long Beach since 2006. Somehow managed to get a lovely lady to marry him, and with her have two daughters. And a dog named Buddy. Never forget the dog.